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Coraline

While not a major blockbuster, Coraline seems to be quietly doing pretty well. It has recouped about half of its production costs, and according to “Box Office Mojo”:http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?view=&yr=2009&wknd=07&p=.htm actually added a few theaters in its second week of release.

One of the artist blogs I follow is by Matt Williames. I didn’t realize “until he posted about it”:http://handdrawnnomadzone.blogspot.com/2009/02/coraline.html that he worked on facial expressions for the film:

“A couple years ago I got a call from this new studio called ‘Laika’. They were doing a new Henry Selick film called Coraline and needed someone to design and animate the facial expressions (including design mouth shapes for dialogue) for all the characters in the film. And they wanted it ALL to be 2D upfront (it would later be modeling in the computer then molds would be made from that). It was a sweet gig– I lived in Portland for 6 weeks, all expenses paid and was scared to death every day of failing miserably.”

Cartoon Brew also links to a collection of “YouTube clips from an artists panel”:http://www.cartoonbrew.com/feature-film/coraline-production-artists-panel.html about Coraline. It’s a shame the “art of” book seems so incomplete.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. A packed theater and applause when the credits rolled only added to my impression that this movie is something special that is being carried by word of mouth.